With a roar of wind, the sphere of plasma floating above lost its form.
"Wha-…?"
Accelerator looked up. That plasma had been created from all the wind flowing through the city being condensed into one point. The flow of that wind had clearly shaken for an instant. That had caused an error in the compression ratio which caused the plasma to be shaken as well.
Accelerator thought he might have made an error in his calculations of the wind, so he rebuilt those new equations. Unlike simple reflection, he had to calculate both, the vector before alteration and the vector after alteration which was a pain in the ass.
But Accelerator managed to perfectly revise that huge set of equations in less than 10 seconds. His brain had developed to the point that something of that level was no problem. In Academy City, power development was part of the teaching method, so Academy City's strongest espers were also Academy City's greatest honor students.
But the movement of the wind flowing through the city suddenly changed as if escaping from the supposedly perfect equations he had built up in his head. It was not a mere coincidence. It was as if the wind itself had a will and was slipping through the gaps of his equations.
The mass of compressed air above his head scattered and the plasma disappeared as if it were dissolving into the air.
(What? What the fuck happened!? There was no mistake in my equations. Those irregular eel-like movements were clearly not natural movements of the air!)
He wondered if he had gotten really unlucky and an actual wind user was using his power somewhere in the city, but that did not make sense as the irregular flow of the wind covered the entire city. If there was a wind user with the processing power needed to outdo Accelerator's ability and equations, that person would definitely be designated a Level 5. However, no one like that existed in the seven Level 5s Accelerator knew of.
Accelerator started panicking wondering what had happened, but then he heard a dry clattering sound.
It was the sound of a wind turbine spinning.
(Wait. I've heard that those power generator motors can be made to spin with microwaves!)
Accelerator turned around toward the Sister he thought he had defeated, but he did not find a dying girl there.
What he found there was his enemy.
He found an enemy standing on her legs that seemed about to collapse, not raising a single complaint about the intense pain running across her entire body, and silently glaring at him.
(Damn you…!)
Accelerator's red eyes changed to a deadly crimson.
Even if his control of the plasma and the wind had been stolen, a Sister could not stand up to Accelerator. That right hand was the sole thing in the world that could penetrate his perfect defenses.
"I'll kill you!"
A smile split across his face as he took a step toward the Sister.
Misaka Mikoto cut in between the two of them.
"…Do you really think I'll let you?"
Mikoto's voice sounded tiny amid the raging wind, but for some reason her quiet voice seemed to pierce into Accelerator's eardrums.
"Hah. Don't get carried away. At your lower rank, you can't reach me. You can't even slow me down. It's like with vision tests where they only test up to 2.0. The only reason I'm stuck at the same level as you is because Academy City's levels don't go higher than 5."
Mikoto did not respond. She likely understood that fact better than anyone and she stood there because she did not want to run away despite understanding that.
Accelerator would see her as in the way and decide to kill her first.
Suddenly, a noise came from behind Accelerator.
"…"
Accelerator timidly turned around.
An unbelievable sight spread out before his eyes there. The boy who had been blown away by 120 m/s winds and slammed into the pole of a wind turbine was slowly standing up.
The boy had countless injuries and it looked like blood was spurting out whenever he put even a slight amount of strength into a muscle. He had almost no strength left, his legs were trembling, and his arms were hanging down like the branches of a willow tree.
Even so, the boy did not collapse.
He would certainly not collapse.
"........................…!"
Accelerator's throat grew as dry as a desert.
Normally, one would think that boy could no longer fight. Someone with that much damage would be destroyed by Accelerator in a single strike.
Even if Accelerator did not want to directly fight the boy, he could always just kill Mikoto and the Sister so he could regain his control over the wind and the plasma. Accelerator was standing much closer to the girls than the boy was.
His reason told him that he could easily win if he dealt with everything calmly.
But something beyond that told him it was incredibly dangerous to turn his back on that boy.
Danger signals were fired from every part of his body.
A normal person would have been able to understand those signals as fear of pain.
"You're amazing!"
Accelerator clenched his fist.
"You're really fucking amazing!"
Kamijou moved his battered body to take a step forward.
With just that slight movement, it felt like all of his blood was evaporating. It felt like just thinking slightly would blow his consciousness away.
Even so, Kamijou continued forward.
With his dim consciousness, Kamijou did not completely understand the situation. He did not know why that wind had blown, he did not know why the plasma had disappeared, and he did not know why he had survived. Even his mind was so battered that those important things had been knocked from his awareness.
Even so, he saw the situation before him.
He saw Accelerator about to kill Misaka Imouto.
He saw Mikoto standing between them to act as a shield for Misaka Imouto.
That was enough.
That was more than enough reason for him to stand up.
"You're amazing!"
He heard Accelerator's voice.
"You're really fucking amazing!"
As Accelerator howled up at the night sky, he ran forward clenching his fist in order to crush Kamijou Touma. He did the same alteration of the vectors of the force of his foot as he kicked the ground as before so that he flew forward like a bullet. Kamijou was thankful. If his opponent was coming for him, he didn't have to walk any further. With Kamijou's battered body, he would likely collapse before making it to Accelerator.
Kamijou Touma had no power.
He did not even have the slight bit of strength left needed to walk on his own two feet, to form words with his own tongue, or to think with his own mind.
Even so, Kamijou clenched his right fist.
He clenched it.
He looked up.
Accelerator had almost reached him as he shot forward like a bullet.
The right hand of suffering and the left hand of poison.
Both of Accelerator's hand could kill with just a touch and they were headed for Kamijou's face.
For an instant, time stopped.
Kamijou mustered up every last ounce of strength remaining in his body and sank down as if he were swinging his head down. The right hand of suffering fruitlessly passed above his head and the left hand of poison was knocked aside by Kamijou's right hand.
"Grit your teeth, weakeststrongest!" Kamijou said to Accelerator whose heart had frozen at having his doubly surefire attack suppressed.
Kamijou gave a ferocious, beast-like smile while they were at such extreme close range that they were almost touching.
"My strongestweakest is going to resound a little!!"
An instant later, Kamijou Touma's right fist plowed into Accelerator's face.
His slender white body ways forcefully knocked to the gravel-covered ground where he rolled around with his arms and legs roughly strewn about.